Posts By:
Rashika

Monday, July 16, 2018

Hi guys! We are huge fans of Paula Stokes over here so we’re really honored and excited to be bringing you a giveaway for Paula’s latest book! It’s a return to mystery and it sounds amazing! Turning over to Paula now!

Paula: Hi peeps 🙂 A big thank you to Rashika and Giselle for having me on Xpresso Reads to talk about my forthcoming mystery, HIDDEN PIECES, releasing on Aug 28. Of course there is a giveaway, but first here’s a little info about the book in case you’re unfamiliar.

Embry Woods has secrets. Small ones about her past. Bigger ones about her relationship with town hero Luke and her feelings for someone new. But the biggest secret she carries with her is about what happened that night at the Sea Cliff Inn. The fire. The homeless guy. Everyone thinks Embry is a hero, too, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Embry thinks she’ll have to take the secret to her grave, until she receives an anonymous note—someone else knows the truth. Next comes a series of threatening messages, asking Embry to make impossible choices, forcing her to put her loved ones at risk. Someone is playing a high stakes game where no one in Embry’s life is safe. And their last move...is murder.

Character Profiles

Embry:

Embry Woods is an 18-year-old girl who likes photography and the ocean, but isn’t sure what she’s going to do after she graduates from high school. Her mom is recovering from breast cancer, and even though she’s in remission now, Embry worries obsessively about her. Embry and her military boyfriend decided to take a break when he deployed overseas, but he’s made it clear he’s still in love with her so she feels horribly guilty that she’s started seeing someone else…who just happens to be her best friend’s Julia’s ex-boyfriend. Embry knows she should tell both of them the truth, but she can’t figure out a way to do it without losing someone important from her life. The fire at the start of the story adds to Embry’s feelings of guilt and helplessness and it takes being pushed to the very edge by a threatening stranger for Embry to find the courage to do finally what’s right. But will she change her ways before someone she loves pays the ultimate price?

Embry’s mom:

Claire Woods is a 38-year-old woman who got pregnant with Embry at age 19 by an older married man. A scandal ensued, resulting in Embry’s father moving away with his family and Claire becoming the town pariah. Despite that, she has always believed that Embry is the very best thing in her life and she would do anything for her daughter. Gradually, people got over Claire’s “bad behavior” and she returned to work at the family café, which she now owns, though she took the summer off from running it to recover from her radiation and surgery.

Holden:

Holden Hassler is an 18-year-old vegan who enjoys reading and painting. (Yes, he’s a quintessential Portland boy, minus the man bun). He’s also one of the smartest kids at Tillamook High. Despite that, he’s not interested in going to college and is considering trying to get an apprenticeship at an auto repair shop in town because he currently works at the gas station and enjoys fixing cars. His parents are divorced and he lives with his mom, a local police officer, so he spends a lot of time trying (and failing) to stay out of trouble. The word on the street is that he looks like a young Jared Leto, but I’ll let you decide if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.

Julia:

Julia Worthington has been Embry’s best friend since she and her family moved to Three Rocks during middle school. The girls spent all their free time at the beach in seventh and eighth grade, but as they got older they developed different interests and have started to grow apart. Julia wants to work in politics someday so she spent the previous summer interning with a think tank in Washington D.C. She plans to attend Harvard or Georgetown to major in political science and is currently working on applications for both.

Betsy:

Betsy is a Golden Retriever and very good (okay, mostly good) doggo. But animal lovers, rest easy, nothing bad happens to her during the book, unless you count the time she has to do her business outside in the rain.

About the Author

Paula Stokes writes stories about flawed characters with good hearts. She’s the author of several novels, most recently Vicarious and Girl Against the Universe. Her writing has been translated into eleven foreign languages. Paula loves kayaking, hiking, reading, and seeking out new adventures in faraway lands She also loves interacting with readers.

So, even though When Dimple Met Rishi was one of my most anticipated books of 2017 and I winded up with two/three copies of it, I actually never ended up reading it. Of course, Sandhya Menon is a champ and regardless of whether or not I had read When Dimple Met Rishi, From Twinkle, With Love was already on my TBR and most anticipated for 2018. Of course, May went back, Twinkle came out and I still hadn’t read it because that’s WHO I AM. A PROCRASTINATOR. But. then. I decided to do a thing. I decided to read the GODDAMN BOOK and it was absolutely, 100% worth it.

I think it is worth it to mention that I found that Twinkle wasn’t as easy to get into. It’s written exclusively in letters so it…

Sarah MacLean is one of my favorite romance authors and after finishing The Day of the Duchess. I was eagerly anticipating the start of a new series and some new characters to fall in love with. I think the best way to state my relationship to this book is that while I wasn’t as invested in the storyline of the two main characters, I was incredibly invested in the overarching plot of the series and the placement of this book within it. I LOVED the secondary characters and I am eagerly awaiting their stories in the future installments.

SO. I didn’t love Wicked and the Wallflower but I am in love with the The Bareknuckle Bastards series?? The question marks at the end because I feel like that is a confusing statement and…

This year feels like we’ve seen the highest number of anthology releases. I keep finding them and adding them to my TBR because SO many sound SO good. I decided to do a short list of some of the ones I’ve found over the course of the year in case you missed them!

1. Life Inside My Mind: 31 Authors Share Their Personal Struggles

2. All Out: The No-Longer-Secret Stories of Queer Teens Throughout the Ages

There have been so MANY amazing anthologies on my radar this year but A Thousand Beginnings and Endings might have been my most anticipated for the year.

I’ve talked this about a lot so I sometimes feel like a broken record, but it is an important point and a huge part of my love and excitement for this anthology so it is worth repeating. I grew up without much rep which was weird and confusing. Obviously, this review is not meant to be an analysis of my trauma but even as a teen, this was so evident when I’d open all those angel/vampire books that were soaked in Christian and western myth. Myths I grew up on, or other people grew up where never part of mainstream media even though they…

YAY! We’re officially half-way through the year. And my yay was definitely not sarcastic. No indeed. Nothing has really changed. I continue to be stressed and semi-functioning but I did read a bunch this month so I am pretty happy. I’ve also officially read 161 books this year and I am hoping that means I’ll hit the 300 mark this year. WHO KNOWS. WISH ME LUCK, FRIENDS.

It was a pretty good month for backlist TBR smashing and I am happy I got so many sequels read! I have a bunch more checked out so hopefully, I’ll get more books read and ticked off that SEQUELS-TO-READ tbr. My favorite sequels were the remaining books in the Gallagher Girl series. Omg those booksssss. They changed my life.

HELLO AGAIN. I missed doing the May round up which sucks but this time I am back and back on time for a round up of June releases. Anyway, just a reminder that these round ups are primarily YA/MG. I try to be as thorough as possible so if I miss something or if a book I’ve included has bad rep, please let me know!

Any of these on your TBR? What are you most looking forward to diving into??

This recommendation list is partially inspired by recent events and also something I’ve wanted to do for a while. It is definitely the bare-minimum (probably not even that, tbh) and we all need to be supporting our Muslim-identifying authors, friends and foe. So here is a list of some wonderful books/authors you should have on your TBRs and should be supporting!! It is by no means a thorough list and a much much MUCH better resource would be the Hijabi Librarians blog.

Follow Xpresso Reads

The Bloggers

Giselle

Giselle is a wife and mother who lives on books and coffee - what else is there?
She's known to be sarcastic and rarely serious. She loves reading books, blogging
about books, chatting about books, and smelling books. Although YA is her current
favorite she has a wide variety of genres that she enjoys. She likes her characters
bad-ass, her plots full of action and her fair share of gore - though she will
indulge in a chick-lit here and there. In short, she'll read anything. She's
also the mind behind Xpresso Book Tours.

Rashika

Rashika is a mysterious creature who likes to hide in the shadows
and plan horrifying things. She also happens to have a huge sweet
tooth so she will lure you over to the dark side with baked goodies
and good book recommendations.

REVIEWED RECENTLY

Xpresso Book Tours

Affiliated With

Archives

Archives

Grab Our Button

Copyright

All materials on this blog were produced and/or compiled by Xpresso Reads. No images, text and/or designs from this site may be copied or reproduced without written permission, with the exception of authors and publishers who may use parts of reviews for quotations.

DISCLAIMER:

Statements and opinions expressed in reviews, discussions, and other posts on this blog are my own unless otherwise stated. Opinions shared by others in comments may not reflect my own. I reserve the right to moderate comments.